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Monday, February 25, 2008

...Time to correct the Oscar mistakes...

As a kid, I often naively loved to watch the Academy Award ceremonies and thought they were right in everything, even though a majority of the films nominted didn't mean nothing to me anyway. But I loved the glamour, cheerful atmosphere and the many stars going to the red carpet, often giving great speeches when they win the award. And the 5 second clips of the nominess always seemed great. Yet, with time, either because of the shallow nature of spectacles or of my apathy towards everything that's "the best", I got bored of it, and when back in '98 "The Truman Show" didn't win any award, I stopped watching it. I admit that the Academy Awards reward the right people from time to time, but I simply had to conclude that my taste and their's don't go hand in hand - I agree with them only about 20 %. To give them some credit, it is difficult to know everything and see every film each year. I myself can confirm that sometimes it takes me years until I stumble upon a film I missed during its premiere.

Truly, how to ignore the fact that the greatest talents of cinema, from Hitchcock, Sellers, Kinski, Kubrick, Fellini, Bergman, Murray, Godard and others never won the award, and still go on with the show as if nothing happened? It would be at least fair from the members to admit that they made a mistake, but I guess they don't have time to do so. Personally, I prefer the BAFTA and the New York Film Critics Circle Awards. But, even the Oscars made a few great choices. Here is my personal list of the categories that should have won from 1979 until 2006.

BEST ACHIEVEMENT: „The Last Temptation of Christ“; „Drowning by Numbers“, "The Land Before Time"
BEST DIRECTOR: Martin Scorsese, „The Last Temptation of Christ“; Don Bluth, "The Land Before Time"
BEST SCREENPLAY: Yoshiki Tanaka, "Legend of the Galactic Heroes"
BEST ACTOR: Willem Dafoe, „The Last Temptation of Christ“
BEST ACTRESS: Carmen Maura, „Mujeres al borde de un ataque“
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Kei Tomiyama, "Legend of the Galactic Heroes"
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Barbara Hershey, „The Last Temptation of Christ“

BEST ACHIEVEMENT: „Love and Death on Long Island“; „Festen“; „Daria“
BEST DIRECTOR: Thomas Vinterberg, „Festen“
BEST SCREENPLAY: Abbas Kiarostami, „Ta'm e guilass“
BEST ACTOR: John Hurt, „Love and Death on Long Island“
BEST ACTRESS: Tracy Grandstaff, „Daria“
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Burt Reynolds, „Boogie Nights“
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Janeane Garofalo, „Romy and Michele's High School Reunion“

2 comments:

I agree. Some have already joked that they should be called "American Awards". But, to be fair, in the last couple of years they actually improved - and it's hard to pick only 4 best actors out of thousands and thousand in one year.

There are now a few very talented actors and actresses nominated that deserve to get their spot in the sun.